1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a reformer or reforming apparatus which reforms a raw material to be reformed containing hydrocarbons, and further relates to a method for manufacturing the reformer and a power generation system comprising the reformer.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, small-sized electronic devices such as portable telephones, notebook-sized personal computers, digital cameras, PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) and electronic diaries have been advanced and developed. Primary cells such as an alkaline dry cell and a manganese dry cell, and secondary cells such as a nickel-cadmium storage cell, a nickel-metal-hydride storage cell and a lithium ion battery are used as electric sources for the small-sized electronic devices. Energy has not always been effectively utilized if the primary cells and secondary cells are verified in terms of effective utilization of energy.
Therefore, fuel cells are keenly researched and developed to replace the primary cells and secondary cells, as the fuel cells can accomplish high efficiency of energy use. The fuel cell is a device which electrochemically reacts a fuel with oxygen in the atmosphere to directly draw electric energy from chemical energy. Hydrogen can be cited as the fuel used for the fuel cells, but has problems of handling and storage amount because it is gas at ordinary temperature. The fuel cell using a liquid fuel as the fuel includes types as follows: a reforming type which reacts the liquid fuel and high-temperature water vapor to draw hydrogen necessary for power generation, and a direct type which directly supplies the fuel to the fuel cell.
If the reforming type fuel cell is used as the power source for the small-sized electronic device, not only the fuel cell but also the reformer need to be small-sized. Therefore, small-sized reformers have been developed in recent years.
The reformer is a reactor which causes a reaction of predetermined chemical substances, and the inside of the reformer is heated to promote the reaction. In this case, the reformer is required to improve heat generation efficiency for its small size.
An advantage of the present invention is to effectively heat a reaction container to promote a reaction.